Lex Luthor Continues to Amaze in New Wired Interview

Wired recently published an “exclusive interview” with billionaire Lex Luthor, continuing the viral marketing angle for the upcoming film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that Warner Bros. and DC began with the interview Fortune Magazine published in October. Even now, the interview is an excellent read, full of great references while also working very well to further establish Lex’s character.

Ron Troupe, the writer of Wired’s piece on Lex (and originally from the pages of Action Comics) goes through a number of subjects during the interview, each with a varied level of success. Lex immediately dominates the interview, stating that he wants to skip over the usual writing tactic of showing how relatable he is through describing his money and a common interest (in this case, basketball). This was one of the best parts of the interview, if only because it established the dominating and imposing aspects of Lex’s character. Suffice it to say, it’s amazing.

On the subject of superhumans (“We should all be careful when we elevate anyone, human or alien, to “super” status,” Lex stated), the Batman vigilante inevitably came up, with Lex giving a rather interesting description of the Caped Crusader:

Well, he is [human]. In fact, I’d say he’s all too human. Any objective analyst will tell you that his brand of justice, vigilantism, is painfully outmoded, designed to be effective in an age when the law carried billy clubs because crime carried knives. The most dangerous guy on the street worked in the shadows because he was cowardly and superstitious. That’s all you needed to play upon in order to disrupt their operations. You want to clean up the streets? Dress up like the boogeyman, switch on a fog machine and lower your voice….This is a new world, Ron, and it’s time to get serious.

After continuing his comments on wanting to support regular humanity over the superhuman community, Lex goes on to reference Task Force X, otherwise known as the Suicide Squad.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here. Suffice it to say the dangers we’ve been talking about are very real. And they’re not just limited to a couple of alien brawlers able to level tall buildings in a single bout. I’m ready to sit down with whatever task force the government has assembled — in the interest of sharing intelligence and building solutions together. If she… they… Argus… the government, whatever you want to call it, has a real interest in fighting for the future, they ought to work with those of us who are already on the front lines.

Looking back through the interview (the remark about Lex putting money into defense technologies without actually having a way to make them profitable was especially interesting the second time around), you’ll notice a couple of Easter eggs pop up in the images accompanying the interview. Specifically, the one below:

Ted Kord, Simon Stagg, and Oliver Queen are all referenced in regards to their companies’ R&D budget, with Wayne Enterprises being questioned due to the resources spent on armored suits and jets without any plans to sell the technology. Collider theorizes that the German company mentioned in the image, Geschaft Krieg, might be a reference to Cyborg. However, I think their reasoning is a bit of a stretch, so we’ll wait and see if anything comes out to confirm or deny this theory.

Either way, I’d recommend you read the full interview when you can. It really is a fun read, and helps paint the image that there’s a lot more to explore in the DCEU.

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will arrive in theaters on March 25, 2016.